C. Thomas Hyun
Management
Hi, welcome to LG Display’s second quarter 2008 conference call. My name is Thomas Hyun and I am the Vice President of Investor Relations. On behalf of LG Display, I would like to welcome everyone to our global quarterly earnings conference call. I am joined by [Bryan Kim], Vice President of Market Intelligence Department; [Kevin Choi], Vice President of TV Marketing Department; [Davis Lee], Vice President of IT Marketing Department; [C.S. Chun], Vice President of Mobile Marketing Department; [G.S. Che], head of R&D Planning Department; and [C.H. Lee], Head of the IR Team. We have approximately one hour for this call. We will spend the first part of the call discussing the key issues for the quarter, which correspond to the slides available on our website. Afterwards, we will take your questions. Before we move into our discussion of the earnings results, please take a minute to read the disclaimer. Okay, we are reporting in consolidated Korean GAAP with an appendix to this presentation that includes our reconciled U.S. GAAP numbers. Before we review the financial performance in detail, I would like to offer some general observations and perspectives on our industry in the second quarter. In the second quarter, our area based shipment was affected by several factors. In China, LCD TV demand was influenced by the natural disasters. In the U.S., there was a downward [inaudible] shift from large to small and medium due to the economy slowdown. Also, some of our IT customers made inventory adjustments in June to manage their inventory levels. As a result of these factors, our shipment per square meter during the second quarter was lower than our guidance, representing a 3% increase. But despite the lower than expected shipment increase, we were able to meet our guided EBITDA margin during the second quarter, resulting in 38% through our ongoing cost reduction efforts and a favorable foreign exchange rate. During the second quarter, we were able to reduce our COGS per square meter in U.S. dollars by 5% sequentially, which exceeds our expectation. The cost reduction was mainly contributed from the productivity improvement through [inaudible] activities and a favorable foreign exchange rate. Going forward, we anticipate the market will improve in the second half of this year, reflecting seasonality. Especially we expect the China market will be covered in the second half. Since we have a strong presence in China, we anticipate the benefit from this expected market improvement. In order to better prepare ourselves for the future, we made an investment decision and have reorganized some of our business structure. Today, our board of directors have approved the gen 6 expansion plan and we will invest approximately KRW1.4 trillion in the fab. The mass production at this fab is expected to start from Q2 2009 and it will mainly produce IT panels. This new fab will help us maintain our leadership position in the IT market by being able to better meet our customer demands. Last month, we launched the new OLED business unit to carry out OLED business in a highly strategic and organized manner. Previously our OLED business was managed by the mobile business unit. We are committed to develop and strengthen our OLED business, one of the future growth engines of the company. Now to the financial details, and please turn to the next slide. Revenues in the second quarter was KRW4.2 trillion, up 4% from the first quarter of 2008, and up 26% compared to the same period last year. COGS per square meter in U.S. dollars decreased by 5% quarter on quarter, exceeding our guidance. Operating income in the second quarter was KRW889 billion, which was slightly higher than the operating income in the first quarter. EBITDA margin recorded 38%, which was in line with our guidance in spite of the lower than guided shipment. From the second quarter, we are using the simplified method to calculate the EBITDA by adding depreciation and amortization to operating income in order to improve the comparability of the figure with other companies in the industry. If we applied the previous EBITDA calculation method, our Q1 and Q2 EBITDA margin would be 40% and 38% respectively. Next slide, please. As of June 30, 2008, we reported approximately KRW3.8 trillion in cash in the second quarter. Our finished goods inventory turnover level for large panels was slightly under three weeks. TV inventory level was increased slightly over four weeks from four weeks in the first quarter, while IT inventory level was increased to about two weeks from one week in the first quarter. Our liabilities through equity ratio as of June 30th was 76%, up two percentage points from the first quarter. Our current ratio as of June 30th was 25%, which is a healthy level. Our debt as of June 30th was KRW4.3 trillion, which is a [KRW26 billion] increase from the end of the first quarter, mostly resulting from the increase of export bill discount. Our net debt to equity ratio as of June 30th was 5%, down seven percentage points compared to the end of the first quarter. Please turn to the next slide. Cash at the beginning of the quarter was approximately KRW3 trillion and cash flow from operations was KRW1.2 trillion. The cash flow from investing activities during the second quarter was a negative KRW606 billion. The change in cash excluding financing activities was a KRW633 billion, and cash at the end of the quarter was approximately KRW3.8 trillion, which is an increase of KRW847 billion from the beginning of the quarter. Next slide, please. Now I would like to explain in more detail about several specific performance metrics. Please turn to the next slide. During the second quarter, a shipment of the total display area increased by 3% and reached 3.3 million square meters, which was lower than our expectation. And shipment didn’t increase as much as we anticipated in the second quarter, mainly due to a slower than expected China market, downward panel size shift in the U.S., and IT customers inventory adjustment. ASP was in line with our guidance. On average, ASP per square meter of a net display area decreased 5% to $1,274. For the TV segment, average ASP per square meter in the second quarter fell 5% and for IT, it fell 4%. Please turn to the next slide. For the second quarter of 2008, the TV segment represented 43% of revenues, maintaining the largest portion of sales. This was followed by monitors at 26%, notebook at 26%, and other applications accounted for 5% of our revenues. Please turn to the next slide, please. During the second quarter, the total production capacity at LG Display increased by 8% and it was mainly contributed by the capacity expansion at P7. Please turn to the next slide. Now we turn to our outlook discussion. Please go to the next slide. I would like to present to you our outlook for the third quarter of 2008. We expect our total shipment to increase by a low 20s percentage; average ASP per square meter is expected to decrease by a low teens percentage. In the TV segment, we anticipate the shipment to increase by a low 30s percentage with an average ASP decrease of a high single digit percentage. In case of the IT segment, we expect shipments to increase by a low teens percentage with an average ASP decrease of a low teens percentage. We will continue to drive our cost reduction strategies and expect our COGS reduction per square meter to be a mid to to high single digit percentage in the third quarter. Since we made the decision to invest in the gen 6 extension, our CapEx for this year will be increased to KRW4.5 trillion, and CapEx will be mainly used for gen 8 and gen 6 extension. Let me conclude by saying that we will continue to focus on cost reduction activities, ongoing product innovation, enhancing customer relations, and maintaining technology leadership for sustainable growth in the future. Thank you and this ends our presentation for the second quarter of 2008 and we are glad to answer your questions now.